Well, the most comparable economy in the world to Australia's in structure is Canada in terms of the mix of activities. Australia, for as long as OECD has been collecting data, has always had a lower unemployment rate than Canada (and Canada has liberalized trade at roughly the same pace, starting in the 80's).
I would define a high unemployment rate as one higher than a comparable peer nation, so I do not think Australia can be considered to have had high unemployment by that measure.
You can look that up here: http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=251
I would define a high unemployment rate as one higher than a comparable peer nation, so I do not think Australia can be considered to have had high unemployment by that measure.